>> encouraging just looking at that forecast. still more to come. >> talking about more to come, nightly news is next. someone out there got the big billion-dollar lotto. nightly news is in los angeles county at the very spot with it to billion-dollar powerball ticket was sold. nightly news welcome back. 9:30 in the east. this is nbc's coverage of the 2022 midterm elections. at issue, the balance of power in the senate and in the house. >> and we've got some calls, or at least some characterizations of -- >> yeah, let's go to arizona. a lot of folks are watching this senate race between mark kelly and blake masters. it is too early to call there. and the same story in wisconsin. ron johnson looking for another term in the united states senate. up against mandela bears. too early to call there.

>> both parties waiting to see which way this one will go. the pennsylvania senate race. that is still too early to call. too early to call. let's look at the georgia senate, one of the other big ones tonight that we're watching for a potential switch in control of the senate. georgia senate too early right now. >> at some point we ought to say too close. at this point at 70% it's hard to say too early at this point. we're getting into -- georgia senate is too close to call. >> you're the boss. >> i'm not. there's others that make that decision. but we're probably off of the too early. >> let's get to peter alexander. he's at dr. oz campaign headquarters in pennsylvania. how are they feeling tonight? >> well, right now they're still waiting for the numbers to come in right now, and they anticipate that this is going to be several days before they may know who the real winner here is. this would be a democratic pickup if john fetterman can win. the first-time candidate dr. mehmet oz is hoping to put his name on the board tonight as well. the bottom line is that they feel fairly good about the

trajectory of this race, the momentum the oz campaign has had in recent days. the bottom line for dr. oz has been a focus on being a moderate. it's why he's invested so much time in what they call the collar counties, those four key counties just outside of philadelphia like where we are tonight in bucks county. they are affluent and well educated and they're really what separates pennsylvania's philadelphia metro area that is so heavily democratic from the more rural conservative areas further west throughout this state. what was notable, though, is that just this past weekend dr. oz despite his efforts to cast himself as a moderate posted a rally alongside the former president donald trump. and i think if he struggles tonight there will be a lot of scrutiny about that decision here. but keep a real close eye on those philadelphia suburbs over the course of this night. 283,000 votes. that's what separated joe biden from donald trump in those counties back in 2020. according to a top adviser to

the oz campaign their goal tonight is to be about 40%, they know they need to get about 40% of the vote there. so keep a close eye on the numbers that come out of those counties. the bottom line is they think they're going to be at it for a while. philadelphia, as we've noted, reinstated today, savannah and lester. a procedure that helped them prevent against any double votes, that means in the words of the acting secretary of state they may be at this for the next few days. back to you. >> yeah, but the pace of those results will certainly cause some anxiety. >> one thing in the exits is right now dr. oz is getting fewer of those white male non-college educated voters, the white non-college educated voters than donald trump got. >> interesting metric to watch. let's go to wisconsin. governor's race is tight there. we've got shaquille brewster on duty in milwaukee. he's at the headquarters for the republican in the race tim michels. hi, shaq. >> hi there. good evening. and you know, polls just closed about a half hour ago, so there's still a lot of vote to come in.

but i've been talking with both campaigns, both party chairs, and it's almost as if they're reading from the same script. they say they're feeling cautiously optimistic. republicans saying they're seeing high turnout in their high population areas. democrats saying they see high turnout and long lines in areas like dane county and milwaukee county and they both say it was the issues that drove their voters to the polls. and look, in wisconsin all that can be true at once. this is a 50-50 state. if you look at the turnout, in the past couple of statewide elections, 2020, 2016, 2018, you saw the electoral margins all under 25,000 votes. both sides understand that this is going to come out to that election day turnout and who's able to edge out the other at the end of the day. and as we continue to watch these poll results come in i want to give our viewers a warning in terms of what we see out of milwaukee. i talked to the director of the elections commission there and one thing that milwaukee does is

they collect all the absentee ballots at once and then they submit them to the county and that's when we get that result. so just like we saw in 2020, it is likely that in the highest population part of this state we will not know a significant amount of that vote until later in the evening. the director says they expect that to come around midnight eastern time. so a lot of vote to come, you about you have both sides saying that a lot of people have been turning out and they're both cautiously optimistic. >> all right, shaq, thank you so much. we have an important senate race to call at this hour in colorado. nbc news is projecting that michael bennet, the incumbent, will return to office. this is a very interesting result, perhaps an indication, hallie, again, of the size of the red wave. this is one of those seats that of course republicans were hoping to pick up. the republican candidate there, joe o'dea, running as a moderate. and that race had tightened up. >> i just talked to him a couple days ago, joe o'dea, the republican candidate in this race, and you know what his biggest messaging was, savannah?

it was economy, economy, economy. he kept pivoting every question to hit on that. clearly what he felt was going to be a successful strategy for him. but this is an interesting call. one of the key races the democrats were watching. >> it worked for bennet. >> i think if people thought there was going to be a wipeout this would be one of the canaries in the coalmine. >> it is. but i talked to some republicans who said you know, joe o'dea went too far in attacking trump and he actually -- he got trump's attention. trump attacked o'dea. >> went after him. >> trump went after him. and that hurt some republican support. >> suppressed the trump vote. >> and he didn't regret it at all. he's his own man. that was his key campaign message, that he was his own man here. and as chuck points out clearly that was a turnoff for some of the republicans in that state. >> so which maybe leads us to ai conversation about election deniers on the ballot. >> seeded from former president trump in the 2020 race. this is a very important point i'm glad we're talking about. because if you look at the races across the country there are hundreds of people who are election deniers o'ar election skeptics including 17 candidates

running for the senate on the republican side who have questioned the legitimate result of the 2020 election, will not say affirmatively that president joe biden won that office legitimately. in the governor's races you've got 17 governors on the republican side who are running who are election deniers or skeptics. let's talk about the secretary of state races. i know that's not something we would typically be sitting here at a desk talking about in a midterm cycle. so, so important because these are the positions that do the administration of elections wherever you live in your state, in most states, right? along with the attorneys general. ten of those secretary of state positions are election deniers or election skeptics who are running. and here's why this matters, and let me give you one example here. there are three states where all three statewide races, governor, secretary of state, and attorney general, the republican candidates are election deniers or skeptics. two of those states are arizona and michigan. which will be key in 2024. if these are the candidates who end up winning -- and we don't know right now where those races are. that could have a major impact on counting votes come 2024 because these are people who

make key decisions. whatever happens with the economy and inflation in two years, we don't know where we'll be but these are the people who if they win will be in office next cycle. >> can i glasses half full this? do you know 3 out of 4 republicans in our exit poll said they have confidence that the vote's going to be counted fairly. >> you were surprised. >> i was surprised it was that high and i was sort of relieved to be frank. if we'd been sitting in a -- >> our exit poll says about 63% of all americans thought that president biden was legitimately the president. >> and more republicans still do not accept that result. but overall in these results three in four republicans said they expected it to be counted fairly. >> when you look at a state like arizona you just mentioned you have a senate candidate who's an election denier, doubter. you have the governor candidate, same thing. the secretary of state. and the attorney general. it's not a trifecta. it's a quad fecta. potentially if they sweep and you're talking about a race in arizona in 2020 that was decided

by what, 11,000 votes, if you're talking about lawsuits, right? from let's say democrats if those republican candidates do win. if you're talking about changes to voting law, for example, or discussions around it, i mean, these are the people who are in those decision-making positions. that's why this matters. and chuck, to your point, i would wonder, do you have any concern -- we've seen a little bit here in the exit polling, national vs. battleground state split. i don't want to get into 2024, but 2024 the president isn't elected by the popular national vote, it's in these battleground states. if it comes down to just a couple of states, right? and we're looking at them -- >> but pennsylvania is one big exception here because from all reports doug mastriano, the gubernatorial candidate, is way behind josh shapiro, the attorney general, running against him. and doug mastriano not only an election denier, led all the lawsuits, watched with the rioters on january 6th, was considered too extreme by the voters. >> and that's a counterpoint, brian chemical np georgia, who of course went to war with

donald trump over the results in georgia. he beat a primary challenge. as did the secretary of state brad raffensperger. so i mean, it's a mixed bag on this issue. >> it is. look, i want to do a little heat check on the house because we've been -- you used the w word, savannah, and i almost stopped you right there. you know, we don't have evidence of the wave. yet. that doesn't mean it might not happen. but let me show you. remember i did my small, medium and large. here's virginia 10. we already called it. so we're not looking at a tsunami for republicans. virginia 7 abigail spanberger obviously is one that we've been very focused on here. look at how close this is. just 3,000 votes. we have some updated totals in here. we think there's still 22,000 votes. this is one where we're going to wait till all the votes are counted before we call this race. but already this tells you this may limit the size of the republican gains because look, florida may give them enough for the majority already. they picked up four seats in that state. but this tells you something, and let me take you over to

virginia too and explain why we haven't called virginia 2 yet. okay. here. and it's simply all of the remaining vote is early vote. okay? and mail vote. so even though it looks like higgins has a big lead over luria we believe almost all the remaining vote is early or absentee, and if that decidedly goes democrats' way that is why we haven't called that yet. and let me just take you to a few other places very quickly just to show you my little heat check of where i'm looking at races. rhode island 2. this was a race that republicans were really excited about. they had a great candidate in alan fung and he really sort of -- he was not your sort of traditional conservative republican. this is one that it looks like it's -- we haven't called it yet but magaziner, who is the son of ira magaziner if you remember during the clinton administration. state treasurer, now running for congress. the point is i'm not seeing wave yet. i'm not saying we won't see it but i'm not seeing wave.

let me get you some indiana. >> because that was one of your -- >> it was -- >> a bellwether. >> certainly an early bellwether. and this is -- we've still got a lot to go here. we've got to wait. but there's not a lot of evidence that mervan is going to lose this race. all of the house returns we've seen so far outside of the state of florida -- and the state of florida looks like it is a killing fields for the democrats. but it didn't spill over outside the state of florida so far. >> it's in the eye of the beholder, though, what is a wave? >> to me a wave was anything over 20 -- but in the house if they pick up 20 house seats or north because you know, they picked up a bunch of house seats in '20 in their defense. they can get to 230-plus actual members of the house, i think you have to say there was at least a bit of a house wave, if you will. one step above ripple. >> well, you need five seats, the republicans need five seats to retake control of the house. we'll keep our eyes on it.

coming up, what does the vote tonight mean for president biden? >> we'll talk to his former >> we'll talk to his former pres cretar you ok, man? the internet is telling me a million different ways i should be trading. look! what's up my trade dogs? you should be listening to me. you want to be rich like me? you want to trust me on this one. [inaudible] wow! yeah! it's time to take control of your investing education. cut through the noise with best-in-class education resources that match your preferred style of learning. learn your way. not theirs. td ameritrade. where smart investors get smarter℠. you didn't live this strong, this long to get put on the shelf like a porcelain doll. but one out of two women over 50 will suffer a fracture from osteoporosis. you should know you can build new bone with evenity® for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis at high risk for fracture. ask your doctor if you can do more than just slowing down bone loss with evenity®. want stronger bones?

then build new bone; evenity® can help in just 12 months. evenity® is proven to reduce spine fracture risk by 73%. evenity® can increase risk of heart attack, stroke, or death from a cardiovascular problem. do not take evenity® if you have low blood calcium, or are allergic to it. serious allergic reactions and low blood calcium have occurred. tell your doctor about jaw bone problems, as they have been reported with evenity®. or about pain in your hip, groin or thigh, as unusual thigh bone fractures have occurred. don't let a break put you on a shelf. talk to your doctor about building new bone with evenity®! [holiday music] ♪ for people who love their vehicles, there is only one name on their holiday list... weathertech... laser measured floorliners that fit perfectly in the front and rear... seat protector to guard against spills and messes... cargoliner, bumpstep, and no drill mudflaps to protect the exterior... and cupfone keeps phones secure and handy... [honk honk]

surprise!! shop for everyone on your list with american made products at weathertech.com...

welcome back. it is election night. this is nbc's "decision 2022" election coverage. let's check in on north carolina. we are now saying that race is too close to call. an open seat. long-time senator richard burr retiring. ted budd in the lead at this hour. but it is too close to call in north carolina. >> and we have a projection in the oklahoma governor's race. it looks like the governor kevin stitt, the incumbent, will win re-election over joy hoffmeister who was i aformer lifelong republican. >> chuck has been watching this oklahoma governor's race very closely and there is a very fascinating dynamic there. >> well, you know, stitt wins, that's good news for him obviously, but there's a new attorney general that's likely to get elected and he got into a big war with the tribes. it's very possible he could be under some state investigation, the governor, having to do with

some campaign contributions. but it all stems from this big fight he seemed to have with the tribes, who spent millions trying to unseat him both in the primary and the general. and apparently, they're not done with him. >> governor stitt holds on. he'll serve another term. >> jen psaki served as president biden's first white house press secretary.